Discuss Detroit » Archives - January 2008 » Montgomery Ward store in East Dearborn to fall « Previous Next »
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Supersport
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Username: Supersport

Post Number: 11776
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 4:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I always thought this was a pretty cool looking building. Too bad it seems that the building's days are numbered. Scheduled to be replaced with a medical center/senior living home. Oh yeah, and a big old parking deck. YAY!

East Dearborn still has a very cool streetscape, this will be a great impact on that area, as the replacement will likely be set back from the road a ways I'm sure. Perhaps my next trip out that way I'll stop and snap a few photos to post.

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll /article?AID=/20080409/NEWS02/ 804090419
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Guideboat
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Username: Guideboat

Post Number: 21
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 9:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I can understand the redevelopment, but it is too bad they can't save the facade.
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Craig
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Username: Craig

Post Number: 708
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 9:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The building has been a white elephant for years. It is coming down because it is of no practical use. Nice looking? Maybe, but the silence of the market for this "cool" building was deafening.
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D2dyeah
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Username: D2dyeah

Post Number: 109
Registered: 09-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 11:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


wa
Montgomery Ward's, Michigan at Schaefer, 1956
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Masterblaster
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Username: Masterblaster

Post Number: 158
Registered: 03-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 11:28 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

With its high ceilings, couldn't the building's top 2 floors be converted to loft apartments, for rent?

The first floor could be retail.

You can put a medical/senior facility anywhere, like those barren stretches of Michigan Avenue or Ford Road near the I-94 Freeway.
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Craig
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Username: Craig

Post Number: 710
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 12:03 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

MB - great idea, but that building has been on the market for years. No one has shown up with financing and a business plan. Should the place sit vacant indefinitely until the "right" kind of investor finally emerges?
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Hudkina
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Username: Hudkina

Post Number: 170
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 12:27 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Tearing this building down will be one of the biggest mistakes Dearborn could make, especially if they are replacing it with an ugly senior box with a parking lot...
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Sciencefair
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Username: Sciencefair

Post Number: 74
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 9:29 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

While I am not advocating the demolition, I had heard from someone involved with the building that the floor to floor heights and floor plan layout made for a difficult renovation, which could have added to the lack of interest.
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56packman
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Username: 56packman

Post Number: 2160
Registered: 12-2005
Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 9:39 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That monkey Wards building has been the subject of much intrigue with the Dear-bern city council and mayor's office, one councilman who felt it was a boondoggle dared to speak his mind and was threatened, IIRC his car was torched in his driveway.

city politics
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 3222
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 12:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dearborn has its fair share of gangster strong arming re commercial real estate development along its main drags ... whether it is east Dearborn (e.g. the recent Wards shenanigans, strip club Sturm und Drang, the passing of the gangster torch from Euro ethnics to Middle Eastern ethnics in overseeing the Mom and Pop stores ...) or West Dearborn (e.g. spontaneous combustion of opportune properties, the $$ backing the older bars and the more recent restaurant/bar development ...).

Yay Dearborn! ... keep Detroit clean?

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